Judges of the International Criminal Court at a plenary sitting have elected Justice Chile Eboe Osuji, an Igbo Man as the president of the International Criminal Court for a three-year term with immediate effect. Judge Robert Fremr(Czech Republic) was elected First Vice-President and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France) Second Vice-President.

Profile of Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji
• The new president holds an LLB from the University of Calabar, Nigeria (1985), an LLM from McGill University, Canada (1991), and a PhD in international criminal law from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2011).
• He was elected to ICC in December 16, 2011, thus making him the first judge of Nigerian descent in that Court. He won the office in the fifteenth ballot in the Assembly of States Parties with 102 votes.
• He has taught international criminal law as an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications.
• Judge Eboe-Osuji served as a legal expert to Nigeria’s delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression and practised law as a barrister, appearing in many criminal, civil and constitutional cases before national courts in Nigeria and Canada.
• Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji was the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during which time he led the writing of submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court.
• He also served as the Principal Appeals Counsel for the Prosecution in the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (2007-2008) and has held several posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including Head of Chambers (2008-2010) and Lead Prosecution Trial Counsel (2000-2003).
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on 17 July 1998, by a conference of 160 States which established the first treaty-based permanent international criminal court. The treaty adopted during that conference is known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The court investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Several individuals have been indicted by the ICC which includes President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, and his wife Simone.

Here are other important things to know about Eboe-Osuji.

1. Eboe-Osuji was born and had his first degree in Nigeria. Eboe-Osuji studied law at the University of Calabar (LL.B) and was called to bar in 1986. He practised briefly in the country before going to McGill University, Montreal Canada for his LL.M and University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands for doctoral degree in laws.
2. From 1997 to 2005, Eboe-Osuji served as a counsel and senior legal officer to judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
3. After this engagement, he returned to Canada and continue his private law practise.
4. In 2005, he appointed to work for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and also returned to the ICTR to work as a legal officer from 2008 to 2010. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) appointed him a legal advisor in 2010. This position he held until his appointment as a judge of the ICC on December 16, 2011.
5. Eboe-Osuji is also currently in charge of the genocide case against the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta at the ICC.

source : Pulse

•We need help, or we’ll be wiped out soon, community leaders plead

David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi

Except there is urgent intervention by government between now and the commencement of the rainy season, trouble looms for residents of Umuogbo Obiofia, a community in Nnewichi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

There are fears that the community would be completely destroyed soon and the people displaced by a devastating erosion that has continued to threaten buildings in the area.

Residents of the community, who raised the alarm recently, pleaded with the Anambra State government and other relevant agencies not to allow them to be consumed by erosion. In their words, there is no other place they could run to.

President-general of Nnewi community, Lagos branch, Chief Emma Orji Chukwu, told the reporter that his house was one of those that might soon be swept away by the rampaging erosion. He returned to Nnewi recently, where he joined those at home to make a passionate appeal to the Federal Government, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, the World Bank and other stakeholders in the area to make haste and rescue the community from the yawning jaws of erosion.

“The erosion site is at the heart of the community. Many farmlands have been wiped away. Many cash crops and economic trees of our people have been destroyed and human lives lost since the problem started. Chief Hycent Orji Chukwu, my uncle, died because of the erosion menace. His grave and that of his wife have been swept away by the erosion. My house, a castle I have here in the village, is under very serious threat as the erosion is only a few metres away from it.

“We have been doing our best through communal efforts to fix the problem but it has gone beyond what the community can handle. Governor Obiano, during the last gubernatorial election campaign, told us that he had made a down-payment of N1 billion through an international agency as counterpart funding to help handle the erosion menace. But we are worried that the erosion has continued to advance towards our residential buildings. At the last count, eight houses have been consumed by the erosion,” Chukwu lamented.

Chukwu, who is also the current president of Nnewi Improvement Union, said he was worried that contracts for the curtailment of the erosion crisis in other communities like Nkpor and Obosi who had the same erosion problem had been signed. He regretted that the contract for his own community was yet to be signed. He said that his community was confused and could not figure out what was happening.

Chukwu expressed gratitude to Willie Onyejekwu, one of the governor’s aides, for his concern on the community’s erosion problem. He said that Onyejekwu had spent his time and effort in many ways to assist the community.

Chairman of works at the erosion site, Mr. Innocent Obodoefuna, said the erosion started as a gully at a spot he called Mmiri Agu in 1983. He explained that successive administrations in Anambra State had visited the site without doing much, even as members of the community had spent over N40 million for all sorts of palliatives, but to no avail.

He said that Governor Obiano had shown considerable interest to assist the community by bringing the attention of the World Bank to the erosion problem. He added that it was for that reason that members of the community massively voted for Obiano’s second term in office. He, therefore, appealed to the governor not to relent. He told the reporter that the World Bank had also promised to start work very soon at the site.

“But our fear is delay, because delay is dangerous. The community has already encountered great human and material losses and that is why we are calling for action before this year’s rainy season actually sets in,” he said.

Obodoefuna said some people from the community, including Uchechukwu Uzoeto, Nwanyi Nkwo, Cyril Ojukwu, Oforkile and Assistant Superintendent of Police Enem had fallen victim to the erosion menace. He said some of those people died as a result of the erosion and their graves were washed away and could no longer be identified.